All federal audits are initiated and conducted by which authority?

• A. Executive
• B. Legislative
• C. Judicial
• D. Independent

Answer: (B)

Auditing for the federal government is carried out by the legislative branch through the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The GAO is the Congress’s independent auditing agency, established to audit and evaluate federal programs and help Congress oversee how funds are spent. It initiates audits in response to congressional requests and as part of its own planning, and it covers programs across the entire government, operating independently of the agencies it audits.

While inspector general offices exist within many executive agencies to audit and investigate within their specific programs, they report within those agencies and do not serve as a single, government‑wide auditor for Congress. The judicial branch does not run a nationwide auditing entity for federal programs. So, the entity responsible for initiating and conducting federal audits, in the common federal framework, is the legislative branch.